Never Be Alone
by Chandrakantya
Summary: Family was a six-letter, unknown word for Karai. Now, it's a complicated puzzle, blurry shapes, and awkward motions as she tries to navigate through the scattered pieces. Every piece has an important value – and Karai has lost too many of them. Luckily, she has people in her life to help her find them – finish the puzzle of family, and perhaps discover the pieces of love, too.


**A/N: Summer's going hard, it's very hot outside and I'm dying here, painfully watching the sea from my seat on the balcony :D**

 **So, to relieve my frustration, have a very small one-shot (or maybe more later XD) I wrote while I was gazing the clear sky. I scribbled it down very quickly, thus it's way too rushed, so don't expect something great XD**

 **Enjoy, though, nonetheless! :))**

 **P.S. Also, apparently, I can't write anything without turning it to Leorai.**

* * *

" **Never Be Alone"**

 **Family was a six-letter, unknown word for Karai. Now, it's a complicated puzzle, blurry shapes, and awkward motions as she tries to navigate through the scattered pieces. Every piece has an important value – and Karai has lost too many of them. Luckily, she has people in her life to help her find them – finish the puzzle of family, and perhaps discover the pieces of love, too.**

* * *

 _Take a piece of my heart  
And make it all your own  
So when we are apart  
You'll never be alone_

* * *

She finds it by accident.

It's still unusual for Karai, overwhelming and pleasantly suffocating – the concept of family is something foreign to her, accompanied with shifting glances, slight clenches of the heart with slow pulls of unfamiliar love, twitching touches, and gestures of pretty affinity from her side – she doesn't understand it.

They're helping her, though.

They're patient with her – coaxing her to wrap her mind around the unbelievable matter of it – each one with his own methods, soft and uncertain now that her father – _their_ father is gone.

They don't let her linger her mind on the fact for too long.

 _Donatello_ is quick, and logical – no longer tenses when he catches the sight of her. She can sense him, thoughts laced with technical wirings, yet sincere hope and wish of peace – for _her_.

He shifts efficiently, makes place for Karai in the lair, a nice, languid space between Leo's and Mikey's rooms, upgrades the DVD set with cool movies and the stand next to the toilet seat with Japanese alternative fashion magazines – welcomes her in his futuristic lab with a smoky smile and a comfy, rolled chair, which is always there for her.

"I had a thought," he usually says instead of greeting her, when she enters the lab sneakily.

Karai fakes a gasp. "Oh _no_ ," she breaths theatrically and Donnie's toothy smiles as he waves his green hand dismissively always manage to make her chuckle under her breath.

"I swear it's a good one this time!"

With _Raphael_ , it is a slow and hesitant process – sprinkled with bad temper tantrums, mean words and carefully placed punches that manage to land painful bruises on the softest parts of their souls.

They learn to heal together – the wounds that burn and sting on them fade lightly as they discover the common grounds they share – their love of rough sparring latches, pepperoni pizzas, and punk rock music, their insecurities that dig inside of them and the way their voices reach a very amusingly deep level when they make fun of Leo's leader tone in unison.

Karai throws him across the room with slick motions that feel as natural as breathing to her while they rush through her body and she laughs as Raph sighs dramatically.

"I hate you," he spats emphatically with a rare, huge smile and she can't help herself but grin back broadly, detecting the lie on his tongue as easily as the affection in his tone.

Her heart beats against her chest fast and satisfyingly, despite being only a ten-minute workout session.

 _Michelangelo_ keeps her company in the cold of the mornings, giving her the grand tour of the kitchen – his _kingdom_ – and describing juvenilely the Japanese breakfast recipes he has discovered online.

They make them together; as good as they can because cooking is not Karai's forte, but the freckled smile and the easy hugs Mikey has to offer t her make her feel like she's a master.

"I suck at this," she grumbles as she sinks her head in her dirty hands, but Mikey is all excitement and enthusiasm as he passes her a mug of hot jasmine tea that has her name graved on it in childish kanji.

" _Hey_! That's my sister you're talking about," he scolds her playfully and the warm feeling that spreads nicely across her stomach is strange but she recognizes it as happiness.

And _Leonardo_ – he keeps her company in the middle of the nights, eyes blue and achingly beautiful as he asks tenderly, "Will you stay over?" and doesn't flinch away or blush hotly in awkwardness anymore.

He invites her in his room, and in his embrace, and his heart, which beats furiously through the hard of his plastron, matches her own as they lean close and kiss beneath meditating, scented candles and dancing shadows.

The concept of love is just as unfamiliarly foreign and difficult as the concept of family – but he is there for her, tracing little clues and fleeting guidelines all over her body with pebbled fingers that send tingles everywhere and make her heart soar.

She still makes mistakes, longs to shift things into something she's aware of – tries to slip a questioning hand between Leo's legs, to turn it into something physical, something she knows and can translate – but he tentatively takes her hands away and tucks them in his, lines cautiously their fingers together so he can guide her slowly on the rocky mountain they call love.

"Be patient," he smiles with wiggling eye ridges and she laughs huskily against his skin.

Because she's experienced, in a way, knows the mechanics and the techniques to make their mouths fit together in pleasantly lustful harmony – but inexperienced in some others, doesn't know the words of honest love or the passion to make their hearts pound together and in sync, floating on the strings of deep and profound feelings.

But she has a good teacher. And when he trusts she's learned enough, he lets his heart go and feel less heavy than before, giving up all control to her and allowing himself to turn lightweight so she can take him _everywhere_.

Karai enjoys the trip more than she admits.

The dojo carries the same essence when she opens its doors, the light from above reflecting against the enormous tree in ways that seem impossible.

The heavy object falls soundly on the floor as she leans her body next to a wooden structure and Karai kneels to grab it and put it back in its place, freezes and keeps it in her hands once she realizes what it is.

It's a photo album, torn and filthy in the corners – the cover grey and dark as she caresses her fingers on it, but once she opens it and runs through it, the pictures glow and sparkle, the album suddenly acquiring a heavy light around it as she holds it like it's something holy.

 _So many_ photos; Mikey in a bathtub, splashes of water and soap all around as he wears a smile full of laughter and bubbles, Donnie with a cheeky smile and busy hands, as he's kneeled on a floor with scattered devices and metal and holds a clean and lean toaster like a golden trophy –

Raph with a annoyed expression playing on his lips, yet mirth dancing in his eyes as he has a red scarf wrapped around his neck, made by him if the knitting equipment beside him is any indication, Leo with the most adorably proud smile that adorns his boyish features as the long and pretty katana is placed on his hands and its blaze matches the one on his face.

An old picture of her mother – dark hair and big, expressive eyes, a red turtleneck sweater and an even redder smile on her lips as she faces the camera and Karai almost thinks the smile is directed at her.

But then, she realizes the smile was probably directed to her father back then – and that feels even more ground shaking. The shadow of grief makes her heart twist beneath layers of black clothes, a lump in her throat causing crippling tears to swell behind her eyes.

And that is how they – _her family_ – find her, and join her all too happily, sinking on the floor and surrounding her with green, inhuman arms and humanly warm eyes as they point to each photo and double themselves in laughter.

Raphael gives her a light-hearted fist bump, Michelangelo nudges her with a loving elbow as Donatello huffs a laugh and grips her shoulders, Leonardo nuzzling shamelessly in the crook of her neck, the easiest press of his lips on her own and Karai is certain the tears that manage to find a way and leave from her blinking eyes are tears of joy.

"I had forgotten about them," Leo says softly and Raph nods with a smile.

"We are definitely taking more to add," Donnie says firmly and Mikey pipes up next to him with a grin, winking towards her, "Especially now that we have a new member in the family."

Raph nods once more, all of their smiles – smiles, now certainly meant for _her_ – tearing apart Karai's walls from inside in the most painfully delightful of ways and she finds herself nodding back, wet cheeks hurting from grinning.

She sees their smiles again, squeezed and hot underneath the blankets as she flips through the album and the photo of their matching toothless grins appears all of a sudden.

' _Family_ ,' the childish handwriting spells below with letters that seem curvy – like the shape of her heart. She doesn't have photos of her like this, the slow pat of the Shredder's hand on her hair the only intimate and childhood-like thing she has come to know.

"You're so _cute_ ," she says instead, without filtering the words before they leave her mouth and Leo snorts besides her.

He scoots closer, his cold legs locking with hers under the covers. "I agree," he smiles sleepily and his breath sends loving shivers on her neck.

She arches against him as he trails his lips on her neck, her trembling chest, against her ribs, over her muscled stomach and then further south until she's moaning his name religiously against the sheets, hands cupping his head that dips lower.

He looks up, eyes endless and heavenly in love as he turns his lips from below to her palm, the green flesh matching with the pink skin and black ink of her nails as he kisses it with all the care of the world and she thinks – _that's_ the most intimate thing she has ever felt.

* * *

( _Family_ and _love_ are still uncertain and soft words to Karai as they ring in her ears and sneak inside her mind, but she's getting used to it – to the feeling of it.

It clenches in her stomach and radiates a warmth that drills into her heart uncomfortably, yet spine-tinglingly. And she tries to scold herself for wanting it there.

But she just can't.)


End file.
